'Pacific Rim' brings movie cliches together for a fun summer film

MRT

Published 3:31 pm, Friday, July 12, 2013

By William Malm

MRT correspondent

Giant robots are pitted against equally large monsters in the summer blockbuster "Pacific Rim," an action movie filled with large-scale fight scenes, as well as impressive visuals shown through a predictable story and OK acting.

The film combines ideas from many different movies to create this new story by director Guillermo del Toro. Giant monsters, which are named Kaiju, have begun emerging from the Pacific through a rift that has appeared on the ocean floor, and are terrorizing coastal cities, such as San Francisco. In response, nations put their rivalries aside and begin building 25-story-tall manned robots called Jaegers to fight the monsters.

Charlie Hunnam ("Sons of Anarchy") plays Raleigh Becket, a pilot of one of the Jaegers who quits piloting after a mission goes wrong at the beginning of the movie. The movie then skips ahead a few years when the monster threat is worsening and the world's governments halt the Jaeger program, leaving only a few robots to defend cities.

The leader of the program, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), is forced to call Becket back into action to join a team that includes fellow pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) and scientist Newton Geizler (Charlie Day). For the rest of the movie the team is tasked with figuring out a way to end the monster invasion before it wipes out humanity.

Many of the characters are typical of sci-fi/action movies. Becket is the hero with a chip on his shoulder, Pentecost is the stern leader of the group and Geizler provides comic relief. Kikuchi stands out as a strong female character who is just as tough as Becket. Ron Perlman has a cameo role that is both hilarious and ridiculous during his few moments on screen. The characters are developed, especially by the end of the story, but that is not the film's focus.

Del Toro pitched the movie as a giant monster versus machine action movie, and it delivered. Fight scenes between the two giants are large-scale and top-notch as we see buildings being destroyed and cities demolished. There's even a point when one of the robots uses an oil tanker like a baseball bat. The monsters and machines both looked eerily life-like, and didn't completely scream "knock-offs" of similar movies such as "Godzilla" or "Transformers."

With its visuals and fight scenes, "Pacific Rim" amazes, showing the best that movies have to offer in those regards. While not adding much to the movie, the acting and plot are adequate, just good enough that they don't take away from the movie.

'Pacific Rim: delivers on its promises of action and fun. 3.5 out of 4 stars.